Gerrit Th. Rietveld - The Complete Works (paperback)

This complete catalogue is the result of long and intensive study of the work of Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964). When in 1987 the Rietveld Schroder House and Archive were transferred to the Centraal Museum Utrecht, it was a major stimulus for research into the archives and documentation concerning Rietveld. The available material was thoroughly analyzed and inventoried, with assistance from the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. At the same time various museum and private collections were studied, while over a two-year period all the houses designed by Rietveld were visited. The research produced surprises: not only were some hitherto unknown objects discovered, but also a new image of Rietveld began to emerge. He appears to be a less dogmatic architect than was at first thought and was also eager to hear the suggestions of his clients, whose active participation he greatly appreciated. An unexpected result of this work has been the discovery of the vast range and extent of Rietveld's oeuvre. He was interested, beside architecture and design; in typography, the use of colour, and in experimenting with materials. Even before the Second World War he was involved in social housing, with standard methods of production, prefab materials and urban planning. His aim was to create neighborhoods where light and space would make life more pleasant. This publication provides a complete overview of Rietveld's multi-facetted and highly productive career. The designs that he realized as well as those never actually made have been chronologically listed. With more than seven hundred illustrations, the complete work of Rietveld is now visually accessible. In the catalogue you will also find six texts by Rietveld himself as well as a list of biographical details and a chronologically ordered bibliography.